Fishing Report

Trout, Washington

Fishing pressure has eased at most Eastern Washington lakes that yielded five-fish limits of trout the first couple weeks of the season.

For example, Blue and Park, which provided outstanding fishing for 10- to 12-inch rainbows, plus some carryover trout, opening weekend, were practically deserted last week. However, fairly good numbers fished the lakes last weekend.

The lakes still hold big trout populations, but it looks as though those who fish them the rest of this season will have little competition from other fishermen.

Lakes within 40 miles of Spokane still get relatively heavy pressure, especially on weekends. Most popular have been West Medical, Fishtrap, Williams and Badger. West Medical, a surprise producer of good-sized trout, is still one of the most popular lakes in the Spokane region.

Silver, Clear, Liberty, Waitts and Jumpoff Joe are attracting anglers who hope to catch brown trout, as well as rainbows.

Sprague Lake has become a place to catch a five-fish limit of rainbows 11 to 13 inches long. Mike Mielke, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, said anglers, mostly walleye fishermen, are bringing in limits of rainbows released as 7- to 8-inchers a few weeks ago. Once in a while, a fisherman catches a carryover rainbow in the 3- to 4-pound bracket.

The cutthroat lakes in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties are good bets, especially those in the Little Pend Oreille chain and Yocum Lake.

Several of the lakes on the Colville Indian Reservation have been providing fair to good fishing. Among the most popular has been McGinnis, which holds 12-inch-plus brook trout. The Twins and Buffalo have started to produce fairly good trout fishing. Non-tribal anglers must have a Colville Indian license to fish the lakes.

In Okanogan County, nearly all the put-and-take lakes continue to yield limits of 10- to 12-inch rainbows.

Quality waters

For big trout, the selective gear and fly fishing-only lakes are the best choices.

Three of the best are in the Spokane region. They are Amber, a selective gear lake that seems to be full of 10- to 16-inch rainbows; Medical, which has a good population of brown trout to 18 inches; and Bayley, a fly fishing-only lake that holds rainbows that measure 14 to 20 inches long, with most in the 15- to 17-inch bracket.

Top selective gear lakes in the Basin are Dry Falls, which has good numbers of 11- to 18-inch rainbows and some 10- to 18-inch browns; Lenore, yielding fair numbers of 15- to 25-inch Lahontan cutthroat; and Lenice and Nunnally, which are producing 12- to 18-inch rainbows and some browns.

The chironomid and damselfly hatches at Dry Falls and Lenice seem to have peaked. At Dry Falls last weekend, for example, damselfly nymphs were no longer crawling up on anglers’ float tubes and pontoon boats. However, thousands of blue damselflies hovered over the water.

This is proving to be Ell Lake’s best year in several seasons. The water, extremely low at times, is the highest in years and the lake apparently has a fairly good population of big rainbows. The yearlings are 14 to 16 inches long and the carryovers run from 18 to 25. Biggest rainbow reported caught this season weighed 8 pounds.

The damselfly hatch at Ell was peaking last weekend. Anglers reported nymphs crawled all over their tubes and pontoon boats.

Callibaetis mayflies and chironomids are hatching at Chopaka Lake, a fly fishing-only water northwest of Loomis. The lake is full of rainbows, most 12 to 15 inches long, with some to 18 inches. The damselflies still weren’t hatching last weekend.

Blue Lake in the Sinlahekin has been providing outstanding fishing for 12- to 18-inch rainbows. The section of the road from Loomis to the lake was closed because of flooding last weekend. Anglers can reach the lake by driving the Pine Creek road and then north to the lake.

Trout, Idaho

Priest Lake is still the place to go to catch good-sized trout. Experienced anglers who troll baited lures near the bottom at the north end of the lake have been taking two-fish limits of mackinaw trout, most weighing 3 to 8 or 9 pounds.

Most are trolling dodgers and flies and dodgers and squids. They bait the hooks with sucker strips, herring and nightcrawlers.

Fishing for the rainbows at Lake Pend Oreille has ranged from slow to fairly good, with trollers hooking 4- to 12-pounders, Jeff Smith, co-owner of the Fins & Feather shop, said.

“There have been one to two good bites a week,” he said.

Most of North Idaho’s small lakes are yielding fair numbers of hatchery-raised rainbows.

Kokanee

More evidence that Loon Lake may have a larger kokanee population than originally expected has been limit catches by a few experienced anglers the last week.

For example, Don Ostlund and Red Crass, using Ostlund’s “poor man’s downrigger,” caught 20 kokanee during three hours of fishing one day this week. Loon has a bonus limit of five kokanee.

Ostlund said he and Crass trolled baited lures at 35 feet. All the kokanee they kept were 13 to 15 inches long.

Anglers interested in rigging up a “poor man’s downrigger” can read about the system in Sunday’s editions of The Spokesman-Review.

Lake Coeur d’Alene has started producing nice-sized kokanee. Smith said fishermen are averaging 10 to 15 fish a day. The limit is 25 a day.

The kokanee are larger than usual for this time of year, running 9 to 12 inches, he said.

Most productive fishing has been in the south end of the lake. With the kokanee near the surface, many anglers are using monofilament line ahead of their baited lures.

Kookanusa Reservoir in northwest Montana continues to yield near-limits of 10- to 15-inch kokanee for a high percentage of anglers. The limit is 20 a day and 40 in possession.

Pike

Smith said he believes fishing for northern pike in Lake Coeur d’Alene will be good this weekend.

“The pike are coming off their spawning beds, and as they do, they start looking for something to eat.”

He suggested anglers use Johnson Silver Minnows and spinner baits in shallow water the next week or so.

Some pike have been caught the last week, but most of the fish were still on their spawning beds.

Spiny rays

Anglers are catching walleyes, crappies, bass and rainbows at Sprague Lake.

Metz said some fishermen hooked 18-inch-plus walleyes last weekend by drifting and trolling lures and by casting plugs in the shallows.

A few anglers have found schools of 11- to 13-inch crappies at the lake, he said. One man not only caught numerous big crappies, he also caught a few of the huge bluegills.

Now is the time to fish for crappies in North Idaho. Smith said crappies in all the mixed-species lakes have been producing good fishing.

Hayden Lake holds the biggest crappies. Smith said an angler, using small, light jigs or flies around docks and boat houses has a good chance of taking a 15-fish limit of 11- to 13-inch crappies. Only crappies 10 inches or longer can be kept.

Thompson, Blue and Killarney lakes, all adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River, are good choices for crappies less than 10 inches long. So is Hauser.

Incidentally, a tiger muskie weighing 19 pounds was caught at Hauser last weekend.

Smith said lake temperatures are ideal for bass fishing throughout the Panhandle.

Trout, Montana

Big salmonflies are expected to start hatching along the lower Rock Creek this weekend, according to Brooks Sanford, owner of the Clark Fork Trout & Tackle shop at St. Regis. The nymphs are moving to the shoreline to hatch.

Huge stoneflies, which are more than an inch long, always create excellent fly fishing when the water is clear. The spring runoff is about over and Rock Creek is dropping fast.

Sanford also said the Clark Fork River, which has been high and muddy as the result of the runoff, has been dropping this week and should be fishable by the weekend. Stoneflies are hatching in the St. Regis area.

The St. Regis River will open to fishing Saturday. The stream is in good condition for fishing, he said.